


method acting

by cherryeri (driftingcactus)



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fluff, Gay Panic, Kissing, lapslock, soccer player joy, sooyoung is a panicked gay, theatre kid yeri, yerim is a lil shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 21:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14942040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driftingcactus/pseuds/cherryeri
Summary: sooyoung has known yerim for too many years, always being in a constant-state of almost-acquaintance. she doesn’t know why she gets a sudden interest in everything kim yerim junior year, nor does she know where it comes from. she’s cursed, probably.or, the retelling of the moments that make sooyoung slowly fall in love and all the denial that comes with them.





	method acting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bigcaesar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigcaesar/gifts).



> so i started this a while ago you when i was like i want some Soft wlw content out there  
> and i was like yknow what I’m writing some soft hs joyri
> 
> most of this is grammatically correct only bc of nina so ty to her
> 
> anyways this is dedicated to my pumpkin pie allie i love u sosomuch
> 
> that’s all

yerim is, perhaps, kind of cute. kind of. it’s a friday night when sooyoung thinks so, sitting in the third row of the school’s auditorium. seulgi and joohyun dragged her to see the opening night of the little mermaid, claiming “ _seungwan-ah needs our moral support!”_

 

seungwan does great, of course. her red hair and lovely voice make her the perfect fit for ariel. it’s yerim that really takes sooyoung aback though. she plays the part of prince eric, (“princess erica,” seulgi corrects, snorting) because it’s common knowledge that the drama club had no male members. (“fragile masculinity is so sad,” seungwan complains to her one day after soccer practice, mouthing some of her lines to herself,) sooyoung herself knows this even if she’s a jock, but she can't help but feel shocked when she looks down at the playbill and sees yerim’s name next to the part of prince eric — no, princess erica.

 

regardless, yerim is amazing. she looks better than she should in her white button down, hair tied back in a low ponytail with some of her bangs sticking out and brushing her eyes. her lilting voice carries throughout the whole auditorium and it sends shivers down sooyoung’s spine. fuck.

 

she’s known yerim since the 3rd grade — they were never friends. even the word acquaintances was a stretch when it came to their lack of a relationship. they’ve interacted no more than 3 times, and once they hit middle school, yerim kind of just faded into the background. if sooyoung thought about it, there was probably only one occasion where she and yerim talked for more than 10 seconds.

 

she feels a little bad about it to this day, but it wasn’t like the drama and sports social circles really overlapped.

 

anyways — yerim. she looks cute and sooyoung feels the sudden urge to get to know her and make up for the 8 years they’ve spent not being friends, but clearly she’s been staring at her for way too long, because seulgi elbows her with a cough and joohyun gives her a very pointed look.

 

“you alright, sooyoung-ah?” she asks, quirking a brow. sooyoung’s face heats up and she scowls, avoiding joohyun’s intrusive gaze. “fine, fine,” she dismisses, waving her hand. “just zoned out a little bit, nothing serious.” she pretends not to notice the little smirk seulgi sends joohyun as she motions her head towards yerim.

 

whatever. they could think what they wanted, she only thought that yerim was possibly a little cute. possibly.

 

(it all goes downhill from there.)

**——**

 

sooyoung realizes that she likes girls the way she was taught to like boys in the seventh grade.

 

it’s a thursday, and she’s behind the school building, just past the soccer field and near the outdoor sinks. the outdoor sinks were used primarily for sports players who needed to cool off for a bit during breaks. thursdays were always the most brutal; her coach made them practice for an hour and a half extra every thursday.

 

one of her teammates, jennie, is with her, splashing water in her face. jennie is pretty in that conventional way, some strands of her hair falling out of her ponytail to frame her face. from where sooyoung’s leaning against the brick wall of the school building, she gulps.

 

jennie looks up then, shooting sooyoung a smile, and suddenly, she’s coming close, close, _close_ to sooyoung until they’re centimeters away. she puts one hand on sooyoung’s shoulder, and stands on the tips of her toes, tucking a strand of hair behind sooyoung’s ear.

 

she grins again, and then promptly connects their mouths. her other hand goes to sooyoung’s opposite shoulder to steady herself, and sooyoung’s brain short-circuits. jennie’s lips are cold from the water, and they taste of waxy cherry coke, probably from the chapstick she always liked to use. they’re soft, firm, and unyielding against sooyoung’s own as she kisses her gently. there’s no tongue — just light pressure and movement. it’s sweet, innocent even.

 

jennie pulls away after a few seconds and giggles, probably at sooyoung’s stunned expression. sooyoung knows that her face must be as red as the bricks she’s leaning against.

 

she goes back to the sinks, and splashes water in her face a few more times. clearing her throat, sooyoung rubs her sweaty palms on her uniform and speaks.

 

“what—what was that for? why did you kiss me?” her voice cracks a little and it makes her cringe. the corner of jennie’s mouth quirks up, and she shrugs. “you looked cute, and i wanted to,” her smile is knowing, as if she was thinking, _i know that you have a little crush on me._ sooyoung swallows down the lump in her throat again, looking down at her cleats.

 

they don’t talk about it after that — and three weeks later jennie moves away, to new zealand. sooyoung doesn’t cry, but it stings a little. she can’t help but wonder if maybe, one day, they could’ve been girlfriends.

 

she pushes the thought away.

**——**

 

one of the rare occasions where she talks to yerim is on the night of the eighth grade dance. sooyoung sneaked out of the gym to go sit on the bleachers and stare at the stars. (the fact that their school had enough money to get all new vending machines, but not enough to get them a venue for the dance was just a little annoying.)

 

she’s trying to see if she can point out any constellations, when she hears a loud sneeze near her. curiously, she turns her head to see … kim yerim? shivering in her short dress.

 

“um, bless you?” sooyoung says it like it’s a question, and yerim looks over and shoots her a small smile.

 

“you don’t happen to have a jacket, right?” she asks, leaning one hand on the bleacher behind her, head tilting.

 

“i don’t,” a beat passes and she adds awkwardly: “i’m sorry.” yerim shakes her head with a forgiving smile.

 

“i didn’t expect you to, it’s okay.”

 

there’s another awkward pause, and sooyoung clears her throat. she doesn’t know what to say to someone she’s never spoken to despite knowing most of her life. yerim speaks instead, saving her from embarrassment.

 

“so,” she hums casually, turning her body to face sooyoung. she rests her head on her palm, and the corner of her lip tugs up. “what’re you doing out here? you’re like, middle school royalty,” she snorts, and sooyoung frowns.

 

“hey!” she calls defensively. “i’m not that popular.” yerim snorts in response.

 

“sure you’re not, hun. and i'm not a theatre dork.”

 

sooyoung pouts at her and yerim just giggles. “um, to answer your previous question. i just wanted to like — get away from it all for a little. y'know?” yerim nods, turning her head up to look at the stars.

 

“yeah— why do you think I’m out here?” they sit like that for a while, staring at the stars in silence.

 

yerim looks at her again and starts talking, breaking the silence, “so, why do you hang with those popular assholes anyways?” sooyoung’s a little taken aback by the question, and she thinks for a few moments before offering a small shrug.

 

“they’re all on the soccer team,” she responds, then frowns a little bit. “also, they’re not all assholes! jisoo, sorn, momo, and hyejoo are all nice.”

 

“four people out of the entire soccer team,” she deadpans. “you know as well as i do that nancy and the rest of her groupies are all obnoxious and gross.”

 

sooyoung frowns again, but she can’t refute it. “i mean, well,” she sputters, and yerim starts laughing boisterously.

 

“you’re so cute,” she says after a moment, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. sooyoung ignores the way her face reddens and flips off yerim off.

 

“shut up,” sooyoung says quickly, and yerim shoots her a crooked grin.

 

“i get you, though. sometimes you hang out with people even if you don’t like them because they’re the most accessible people. it’s fine,” yerim sounds more mature than a 13 year old should, like she’s experienced all the hardships of the world. (sooyoung is being a little dramatic.)

 

sooyoung nods, and she thinks she sees yerim look a little wistful. the look goes away as quickly as it came. she turns her head back to sooyoung and says, “i bet i can point out more constellations than you can.”

 

they sit there, for what seems like hours, pointing out the constellations in the night sky of their little town. yerim, to sooyoung's annoyance, ends up winning, and she turns towards sooyoung once more.

 

“you’re good company, i guess,” yerim says, offering her a small smile. sooyoung feels her face heat up and she looks down at her sensible flats. “um. you.. you too.” she whispers, not knowing why she feels so _weird._

 

they go back inside and don’t talk again after that. yerim doesn’t even smile at her at graduation when she catches her eye. sooyoung doesn’t know what she did wrong.

 

she doesn’t think of kim yerim for the duration of the summer, along with her freshman and sophomore year. her mind is filled with summer and highschool and hanging out with her newfound best friends.

 

**——**

 

the week following the opening night of the school play, sooyoung is just a little distracted. she keeps thinking of stupid kim yerim and her stupidly pretty face and her stupidly soft singing voice. she doesn’t know where all these intrusive thoughts are coming from, and her brain helpfully supplies that she’s probably starting to formulate a crush on kim yerim.

 

she is, possibly, more than a little cute. maybe. possibly.

 

she shuts the thought down as soon as it comes into her head and tries to walk a little faster, because she’s already 5 minutes late to lunch and her phone keeps buzzing from its place in her pocket. she could tell it was seulgi without even having to look at her phone, because seulgi spammed her on a regular basis.

 

she’s about to take out her phone to tell seulgi to shut up, but instead it falls to the ground with a loud _thud_ as she bumps into something.

 

“oof,” the thing gasps out. sooyoung curses loudly when she realizes her phone could’ve easily cracked, and looks up from the ground to see that she bumped into fucking _kim yerim_ of all people. curse her luck.

 

yerim steps back from where she collided with sooyoung, and bends down to pick up sooyoung’s phone. her dainty hand dangles it in front of sooyoung’s face, who snatches it a little too aggressively, a blush painting her features. yerim honest to god smirks the tiniest bit once she notices how flustered sooyoung is.

 

she crosses her arms over her chest (sooyoung drags her eyes up, and she curses under her breath once more, because she’s being fucking _gross,)_ and quirks an eyebrow.

 

“are you trying to bulldoze me?” she hums, and sooyoung wills the blush on her face to go away.

 

“sorry, i didn’t see where i was going and i really didn’t mean to like, crash into you.” she’s fumbling with her words and yerim laughs melodically before patting sooyoung’s shoulder good naturedly. it’s such a familiar gesture yet they barely even know each other. sooyoung’s breath hitches.

 

“it’s fine, kim, i’m just teasing you.” the corner of her mouth tugs up into the little grin again and sooyoung can see the little moles she has on her cheek and nose. she swallows at their proximity. fucking fuck.

 

“i'm still sorry,” she mumbles awkwardly, rubbing her arm, and yerim just shakes her head, grinning. “it’s fine, really! i’ll tell you what, if you buy me boba this week i’ll forgive you.” her eyes are twinkling with mirth as she looks up at sooyoung, and sooyoung nods rushedly.

 

“yeah, of course!” this makes yerim burst out laughing again, her nose scrunching up cutely.

 

“i was just messing around, sooyoung-ah! i was the one who caused you to drop your phone anyway,” she motions with her hand towards sooyoung’s phone, and grins.

 

“you’re so cute and gullible that i can’t help but tease you!”

 

sooyoung frowns, and she wills herself not to blush again. “i still feel bad because i wasn’t watching where i was going,” she says, rubbing her arm again. “so, i'll still buy you boba.”

 

yerim cheers excitedly and gives her a quick hug, tiny arms squeezing around her waist tightly. “thanks, sooyoung!” she exclaims, and she’s down the hall in what seems like seconds. sooyoung blushes all the way down to her chest. what the _hell_ was that?

 

she’s 15 minutes late by the time she gets to lunch and seulgi is giving her the dirty look. she explains that she was caught up in history class, and joohyun narrows her eyes pointedly before accepting the excuse. seulgi goes back to her dramatic retelling of chanyeol asking out baekhyun to the spring fling, complete with excessive hand motions. in the midst of the story, seungwan points to her phone with a half eaten fry.

 

“did seulgi’s cat swipe your phone or something?” she asks, popping the fry in her mouth. sooyoung looks down to see there’s a long, vertical scratch in the bottom corner of her phone and she flushes again, shaking her head.

 

“just dropped it, that’s all.”

 

**——**

 

it’s two days later when yerim comes up to her after ap english. she puts her palms on sooyoung’s desk, causing sooyoung to look up, and gives sooyoung the most desperate puppy-dog eyes she’s ever seen.

 

“sooyoung-ah,” yerim almost-whines, dragging out the syllables of her name. sooyoung ignores the way her heart starts racing, the thumping of it climbing up to her throat.

 

“yeah?” she finally says after clearing her throat so she doesn’t sound like a dying whale. she sadly isn’t successful.

 

“are you doing anything after school?” yerim asks, batting her lashes as she juts out her bottom lip. (she knows what yerim’s gonna ask. she also knows that she would say yes in a heartbeat, even without the pouting and puppy dog eyes.)

 

sooyoung shakes her head. “yes i can buy you boba today,” she sighs, stuffing her books into her bag. yerim’s face lights up and she leans in even closer. (sooyoung ignores the way her face heats up — she doesn’t like yerim. nope.)

 

“really?” she exclaims, and sooyoung holds back a smile, settling for a curt nod. “yeah, but don’t order anything too expensive. my wallet can’t handle it.” yerim just laughs her pretty laugh, and nods excitedly, practically skipping out of class. sooyoung can see her metaphorical tail wagging. she shakes her head to herself and smiles as she zippers her book bag.

 

sooyoung realizes on the way to chorus that she didn’t stutter or choke up at all. she refrains from doing a victory dance in the middle of the hallway, and instead settles for a small, triumphant, “yes!”

 

(okay, this still doesn’t mean that she likes yerim. seriously!)  

**——**

 

yerim is funny and nice and hangs onto every word sooyoung says attentively. she laughs hard, with her whole body, and her taro bubble tea comes out of her nose on more than one occasion. it’s supposed to be gross and repulsive -- but it’s not. it can’t be repulsive, not with the way yerim cackles afterward as she apologizes and uses way too many napkins to wipe her nose.

 

she grins at sooyoung with her whole face, smile curling up and squishing her cute baby-fat cheeks. it’s nice. listening to yerim talk about anything and everything -- ranting about mrs. yoo, how unnecessary trig is to the world, the beauty of milk chocolate. she’s so open and unapologetic about everything that comes out of her mouth and sooyoung knows that she probably stared at her with eyes too-lovestruck to be platonic.

 

hopefully yerim didn’t notice. hopefully.

 

yerim gives sooyoung her number and snapchat, making her swear to text. pinky promise and all. she hugs her quickly just before they part ways, and sooyoung blushes all the way down to her damn toes. she can feel her ears still burning well on her way home and she flops on her bed with a screech. her mom doesn’t even question it when she runs up to her room, squealing.

 

she gets a text in her groupchat (appropriately named the homiesexuals) with seungwan, joohyun, and seulgi a couple of hours later. there’s a couple of spams of “oh worm,” before she gets very heavily interrogated. seulgi demands for sooyoung to get on houseparty, and they all give her slightly-judgemental yet supportive looks.

 

“so,” joohyun says, and seungwan quickly interjects: “since when did you hang out with yerim?”

 

“yes, thanks for always getting straight to the point, seungwan-ah,” seulgi chuckles, ignoring joohyun’s eye roll.  
  
sooyoung rubs the back of her neck awkwardly as they all stare her down. “um, well, i don’t?” she starts, and seulgi gives her the look, quirking a brow.

 

“so what’s with you being on her snap story? did she pull that out of her ass?” seungwan snorts and joohyun just sighs again.

 

“seungwan, shut up.”

 

“well, like, i bumped into her and felt bad so i bought her boba. that’s all!”

 

“we’re witnessing the first stages of a blooming love, guys, i feel touched,” seulgi says, wiping a not-there tear from her eye.

 

sooyoung hangs up with a scowl before they can notice her flushed cheeks. she loves her best friends, but she doesn’t love it when they butt into her (non-existent) love life. besides, getting boba with kim yerim doesn’t mean they’re getting married. it’s not like sooyoung even likes her!

 

(later that night, she registers that she is very much in denial. like most other problems in her life, she ignores it.)

 

**——**

 

it’s nearing the end of junior year when sooyoung comes to a realization in the middle of ihop. yerim is sitting across from her, and she’s laughing, and there’s whipped cream covering the tip of her nose. she looks kind of gorgeous and sooyoung feels her face squish up and knows that she probably looks constipated right now, because yerim starts laughing even harder, throwing her head back.

 

she grins up at sooyoung, her eyes practically sparkling. “what? is there something on my face?”

 

fuck her life. she shouldn’t even be here right now, she should be in class but instead she’s eating mediocre breakfast food and acting like an idiot, reaching over to swipe the whipped cream off yerim’s nose.

 

to make matters worse, she licks it off her thumb and yerim’s face drops a little, eyebrows furrowing, pink spreading across her cheekbones. (or maybe not, maybe it’s her being delusional, or the bad lighting in their booth at the corner of ihop.)

 

her actions don’t even register until a beat passes, and she feels her cheeks heat up like they always do whenever she’s around yerim. from across her, yerim starts laughing again, albeit a little strained.

 

“oh, what’s this? getting bold are we, sooyoungie?” yerim teases, her mouth curling up into her signature shit-eating grin. the almost-blush is still blooming on her cheeks, and sooyoung scowls before flicking a piece of waffle at yerim’s face.

 

“shut up, you egg. i didn’t even mean to do that, i swear!” she’s still blushing, because she has no self control.

 

yerim just smirks, leaning closer to sooyoung, and she winks. “whatever you say, unnie. it’s fine though, i liked it.”

 

it’s then, in the gross, vaguely sticky booth of ihop, that she realizes that she’s in love. (probably.)

 

**——**

 

two days later, she’s playing super smash bros in seulgi’s ridiculously big room, face smushed into one of seulgi’s big teddy bears. (the one she’s cuddling right now, bearie the 3rd, is special. she spent 15 dollars at the freshman year fair to win that bear for seulgi and will never let her forget it.)

 

in the midst of princess rosalina almost kicking princess daisy’s ass, seulgi pauses the game and rolls around in the bed to give sooyoung the _look._

 

sooyoung exclaims in shock and drops the controller on the sheets, whipping her head around to glare at seulgi. “i was just about to win, asshole!”

 

seulgi just purses her lips. “you and yerim.” she says.

 

“me and yerim?”

 

seulgi sighs, and grabs bearie the third from sooyoung. “yeah, you and yerim. are you guys dating, or what?”

 

sooyoung chokes, and stares at seulgi, wide-eyed. “what? me and yerim? _what?”_ she splutters.

 

seulgi suddenly goes wide eyed, like she’s realized something, and shakes her head sympathetically.

 

“sooyoung-ah, you’re so fucking dumb. when the fuck are you gonna ask her out?”

 

sooyoung blushes in lieu of an answer, and seulgi leans over to hug her.

 

“listen, it’s okay if you like her. it’s okay to like girls. you’re talking to the biggest lesbian here,” she snorts, and sooyoung frowns against her shoulder.

 

“it’s not that,” she sighs, wiggling her head into the crook of seulgi’s neck. “it’s just like, i don’t even know if she likes me? if i ask her out, she’d probably laugh in my face or look disgusted.”

 

seulgi shoves her off the bed not-so-gently.

 

“oh my god, i can’t believe you’ve just said that. shut up, you fucking _moron._ do you not see the way she looks at you like you hung the stars in the sky.”

 

sooyoung flushes and throws the controller at seulgi’s head. it misses.

 

(they play super smash bros for the rest of the night, and like expected, princess rosalina reigns victorious each time.)

 

**——**

 

she’s hanging out with yerim again, and seungwan, joohyun, and seulgi are all blowing up her phone. she knows why, and her clammy hands are shaking. the ice in her starbucks cup is clicking against the cup, and yerim looks at her curiously, newly dyed short red hair falling in her face.

 

their thighs are pressing together from their proximity on sooyoung’s couch, and the captain america movie they put on is long forgotten.

 

“sooyoung-ah, are you okay?” she whispers, hand coming to rest on top of sooyoung’s unoccupied hand. sooyoung puts down the starbucks cup so she doesn’t drop it, and turns to look at yerim.

 

the soft light from the tv is illuminating her face, and she looks as pretty as usual, her moles especially cute from how close they are.

 

she can feel her heart thumping wildly in her chest, almost jumping up to her throat, and she breathes out shakily. she doesn’t know why she’s so nervous. (that’s a lie.)

 

“um, you look. you look really pretty today,” she whispers, and yerim grins at her, the corners of her lips tugging up.

 

“do i now?” she hums teasingly, nose scrunching up in an adorable way.

 

sooyoung shifts in place instead of answering, because she feels like she’s going to vomit, _what if she says no,_ when yerim hums, “sooyoung-ah, is it alright if i kiss you?”

 

sooyoung swears that her heart stopped. spluttering, she choked out, “ _fuck_ yes,” and yerim giggles once more before scooting closer.

 

she tilts up sooyoung’s head with her hand, and her thumb is rubbing at sooyoung’s jaw gently. she presses a kiss to her nose first, then her forehead, and then hovers over her lips to the point where they’re almost touching but not quite. sooyoung almost screams in frustration.

 

yerim smirks once more. “don’t be impatient baby,” she whispers, and finally presses her lips to sooyoung. it’s only mildly infuriating.

 

yerim’s lips are a little dry, but her experience makes up for it. she takes the lead instantly, smiling when sooyoung attempts to, nipping her bottom lip. sooyoung will deny any accounts of her yelping.

 

yerim doesn’t push it beyond that though. she kisses her slowly and sweetly, only going as far as to occasionally swipe her tongue across sooyoung’s bottom lip. it’s the second time sooyoung has ever kissed someone, but it’s worlds different then kissing jennie kim in the 7th grade. sooyoung is just as awkward, and it’s mostly sweet and not pushing any boundaries. but yerim kisses her with a tenderness, cradles her jaw and strokes her waist and it makes sooyoung feel like she’s about to melt into a puddle.

 

when they pull apart, sooyoung blurts, “i think i love you.”

 

yerim throws her head back in laughter. “be my girlfriend, you fucking dork.” she says instead.

 

(it doesn’t work out the way sooyoung wanted it to, and seungwan chews her out for it later. but ultimately, it ends up fine. sooyoung confesses that she’s liked yerim since she saw her in the play. yerim calls her a big dweeb and says that she’s thought sooyoung was cute ever since she saw her during a soccer game in the 6th grade. she shoves yerim away, blushing when yerim laughs and gives her a wet smooch on her cheek.)

**Author's Note:**

> i hope u enjoyed <3  
> kudos and comments make my day and motivate me to write more crappy fluff


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